215 – Sexy

Best Song

Celibacy Club – Afternoon Delight

Rin says: I just, the coloured lights, the dodgy overlays, the images of dessert in the background and their outfits. I think those were the things that pushed this into the lead for best song, even though this episode was slim pickings again. Anything with Holly was just plain annoying, and I found myself fast forwarding ‘Kiss’ especially.

Sophy says: Okay, let’s be real. This was already going to win by default on account of not having Gwyneth Paltrow in it. But even if Paltrow had managed to squeeze herself into every song I probably still would have picked this one. Because oh my god, the lights. And the outfits. The desserts. The cheesy smiles and hand gestures.

And Emma.

God, every time we see Emma again I realize how much I miss her when she’s not around. And I thought it was adorable that she managed to go her whole life not knowing the actual meaning of the song. I mean, I’d still be singing about hearts and toes if it weren’t for Rin.

“Don’t throw yourself around like you don’t matter. ‘Cause you matter, Kurt.”

Rin says: I really enjoyed the talk between these two because they punctuated how awkward these kinds of parent/child conversations can be, and how they’re both really not good at this type of thing. I love that we actually saw Kurt put his fingers in his ears and start LALALA-ing just like Blaine had said earlier. I loved the dialogue too and how it wasn’t this big well-articulated speech about love and sex and etc. It was just Burt making sure his son knows that he cares.

Sophy says: The actual ‘La la la’ thing was amazing and probably second in line for biggest LOL. Nice work, Colfer – as always.

I absolutely adored Burt’s speech – the fact that he started out so awkwardly and wasn’t quite able to express what he meant cleanly until the end. You matter. Best sex talk ever. And most effective sex talk ever too, I would imagine – everything else a kid can get from school or wikipedia. What they need from a parent is to be encouraged to care enough about themselves to find out.

I LOVE YOU BURT HUMMELL

Also, I’ve seen it said that it was completely out of line for Blaine to talk to Burt about Kurt’s lack of knowledge re: sex… I don’t see that. I think it was sweet and showed his growing protectiveness and how much he cares about Kurt as a friend – which is a nice change from last week’s fuckery, thanks writer-of-the-week. The part I did find ridiculous was that Blaine apparently thought Kurt wouldn’t even know he needed to use a condom. Like. Give him some credit.

Rin says: Holly ruins everything. Everything. I was so pissed when she appeared on our screens again. Like, gawd, just get out.

“Although I think you’re naive and possibly frigid..”

EXCUSE ME? What adult says that to a teenage girl?

And she also ruined Santana and Brittany’s song. She didn’t need to be sitting in between them, and Gywneth Paltrow didn’t need to be holding a guitar. Would she stop trying to push herself as a country singer, for fucks sake. It could have been so much lovelier if it was just Brittana.

And the whole Holly/Will thing makes me want to vomit. Especially with how Holly treated Emma.

Sophy says: Oh my god I can’t. If I hated Holly Holiday less I could talk about it more? Yes, even more than I’m about to.

Holiday is a horrid character regardless of who’s playing her – one of those too cool for school, but sorta dorky! straight talking feisty “funny” blondes who ~touches people’s lives. Yuck. I can’t. JUST. YUCK. But it doesn’t help that Paltrow gives me second-hand embarrassment as an actress, a singer and a dancer. The woman has zero natural grace, sings about as well as the person next to you at a church service, and has an unpleasant simpering try-hard quality to her as an actress which is particularly apparent when she’s trying to do comedy.

So okay, Holiday is awful on paper. But maybe if they’d gotten someone less physically stiff, someone who can hit the high notes, someone with actual comedic ability and experience… she might have been a little more bearable.

Also, Glee people? I can understand you wanting Paltrow on your show and all. Each to their own, whatever. But do you really have to shove her into basically every song? I nearly had a rage blackout when I saw her sitting between Brittany and Santana for their duet. I can’t even… what were they thinking with that? It’s made even more egregious by the attempt to explain it away with ‘Oh that song needs three vocal parts’. Well no, okay? Stevie Nicks did just fine with one.

I get that they wanted to try to manipulate viewers into looking fondly on Holly by having her get Brittana on the road, and okay, that’s all nice and vomitty, but at least leave her out of the actual song.

And while we’re on that, what exactly are they trying to do with this character? Because it seemed like they were desperately pulling out all the stops to get us to like her… and then they turn around and make her an out and out villain at the end? At least I hope and pray that she’s supposed to be an out and out villain. Because her behaviour towards Emma was nothing short of disgusting. She put her on the spot about Will in a very emotional time, basically forced her to admit her uncertainty as to her feelings for him, thereby throwing her marriage into jeopardy… and then she goes and hooks up with Will.

I can’t. I mean. WHAT?

And it was made even more revolting by the fact that she didn’t actually tell Will about what happened with Emma and the feelings she may still have for him, but did make a callous little joke about how another woman wanting him made her decide to hook up. Um.

Rin says: I know a lot of you will be wielding pitchforks and torches at us for not making this best scene, but it was our decision not to make it best scene simply because the Brittana story has been pretty sloppy. So by the time this huge scene comes about, there’s not really much substance to back it, even though I think in and of itself this is a really wonderful scene. Naya absolutely kills it and I love her for it, because you can tell she really wanted to do it justice, and it was nice to see her given the opportunity to stretch herself.

And it’s entirely Glee’s lack of ability to build and develop characters over the span of more than one episode that has ruined any chance of any relationship to be taken seriously.

I’m interested to see where this goes, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for hiatus to be over just to see what happens.

Sophy says: YOU THOUGHT WE JUST WEREN’T GOING TO TALK ABOUT THIS, DIDN’T YOU?

Well we are. *clears throat*

Okay, here’s the thing with the Brittana in this episode.

It was beautiful.

And 90% of that is down to Naya Rivera who absolutely knocked our socks off with her acting. I really didn’t expect her to be able to emote the way she did; the character’s heart was on her sleeve because the actress’ heart was, and it brought the relationship to a whole other level of seriousness.

Which ironically is kind of what pissed me off? I guess what I’m saying is the unexpected depth Naya brought to Santana really drove home for me just how poor the build-up of this relationship has been. I mean… they kissed several episodes ago and there was no indication that it was anything more than no-strings fun for them and a cute joke for the audience. Since then they’ve had some nice friendship scenes, which have mostly been comical in nature and in no way point to romance. And then last week Santana didn’t want Brittany kissing Sam during Spin The Bottle which I guess we’re all supposed to take as being all about Brittany now but… I don’t know. It’s all pretty damn weak and wishy-washy, isn’t it?

And I suppose one of the other difficulties apart from the lack of build-up is that Brittany, and to a lesser extent Santana, are not characters who can fairly be used in a srs bsns romantic plotline. Santana is a joke character – she’s a mini Sue Sylvester. And okay, I kind of bought the idea that the cartoon bitchiness is a front for her pain and confusion, but again, that’s mostly just because Naya sold it so damn well.

Brittany on the other hand… I’m sorry, but they’ve just made her too comically stupid for me to believe that she could have any idea what Santana’s really feeling or even begin to ever feel it herself… which in turn kind of makes it hard to believe that Santana’s really feeling it. I mean, Brittany’s cute and all, but you scratch a puppy behind the ears… you don’t fall in love with it.

The problem is that Glee tends to use its characters as punchlines, and when you do that too often, your characters become punchlines… and it’s really hard to later buy them as actual flesh and blood human beings, let alone human beings in love, let alone human beings in messy, complicated, angsty love.

Sigh.

Alright. Brittana is not the only plotline to suffer from this shit. It’s more or less par for the course with Glee. And so if I can continue to watch the show, then I can put the issues behind me and enjoy the relationship for what it is. But it will always make me sad that the writers weren’t a little more careful.

Because if they had been? What we saw in this episode tells me Brittana could have been something really special.

29 Responses

I think if you want to give the Glee team a bit of credit (and I always do because when it’s good, it’s pretty much phenomenal), the sudden appearance of jealous!Santana is a little bit in character with what we’ve been given of her personality–it was subtle waaaaaaay back in “Duets” when Santana was all “OMG do not want Melissa Etheridge/Brittany/Santana OTP,” but her insecurity was there. She seems wishy-washy because her meek side/vulnerability/actual non-lizard emotions only come out in certain situations.

But then they turn Brittany from a girl truly hilarious in her bouts of naivete into a character of almost-Eura levels of specialness, and I cry and sob and I JUST WANT HER TO BE THE AMERICAN CHEERLEADER VERSION OF LUNA LOVEGOOD, OKAY?

It’s just sad that the characters in this show are only ~good when they have the fewest glaring contradictions. So Santana and Kurt, please keeping growing because you can be beautiful if you try.

This episode made me kind of sad because it was a perfect example of how great Glee could’ve been if they’d actually done some character development.

At this stage the only person I feel like I know anything about is Kurt. That scene with his Dad was awesome I wish for the world that every gay kid had a parent like Kurt Hummel.

On it’s own I love Santana’s scene purely because there are so few examples of raw emotional expression of being confused about your sexuality. I agree Naya knocked that scene out of the park so I try to concentrate on that rather than how confused I am that she is in love with Brittany when until this moment it seemed like nothing more than an inside joke. Do I think that the storyline will actually make sense and go somewhere decent? Not really. But I am trying to at least be hopeful.

The reason no characters other than Kurt have fully-fleshed out storylines and sensible motivation for doing things is…Kurt is Ryan Murphy in high school. He’s said it himself. He’s essentially having too much fun re-writing his youth and living vicariously through Kurt/pushing his political agenda to devote any time to the other characters.

And THAT is why Glee has turned into The Kurt Show With A Side Of Rachel Pining Over Finn, Feat. Gwyneth Paltrow.

Well with the dumb blonde thing, we have to remember that 1: Brittany is intentionally an over-done parody of a ditzy girl, and 2: the Glee writers got in there with their fuckery and took it too far (wrong hand/sharks: cute. stork babies/magic comb: no.)

Honestly, I agree with diggablu. I can see parts of a girl I dated in Brittany, and can definitely see how Santana could fall for her. Brittany was sweet, and made Santana smile. But more than that, Brittany relied on her and so Santana felt secure in the relationship, probably for the first time in her life. Santana thought she was in control right up until the point she realized she needed Brittany to need her, much more than Brittany actually needed her. Any dog-lover will tell you that part of why you love your dog is because it will always love you, always need you, and never judge you. The cute and silly is just the surface.

Like you guys said, if it wasn’t for Glee’s near constant behind-the-scenes mess-ups, this could have been amazing.
P.S. This did not start out as a rant.

I totally see what you’re saying, it’s just that to me you’re talking more about how Brittany should be written rather than how she is written. She should be an adorably ditzy random girl… and a lot of the time she is. But when they push it too far she just comes off as actually intellectually handicapped. And I totally get falling in love with a ditzy puppyish person, like you’re describing, and like Brittany is a lot of the time. But falling in love with someone intellectually handicapped to the point where they have the understanding of the world of a small child is implausible at best and creepy at worst.

If they limited Brittany’s dippiness to thinks like ‘the goat just ate the money’ and ‘that is so racist’ I’d be fine… it’s just the stork and santa stuff that kind of makes it hard to take her seriously as a love interest.

That makes Artie even creepier, though! I mean, he threw money at her while she was drunk! As in “Yay, my girlfriend is acting like a stripper, I must encourage this! Yay, she believes in magic combs, the storch, santa clause, but as long as she’s having sex with me, I’m happy if she’s happy!”
I think if Brittana were a thing, Santana would be a lot less condescending and gross than Artie, and Brittany would actually grow up a little, if she’s not with some boy who feeds into her naivity.

Haha well… we’d still be saying NO to Brittany/Artie over and over if it hadn’t become clear that it’s a pointless joke. And I guess that’s why I don’t care as much about the lazy writing with them as I do with Brittany/Santana. Because like… it’s Brittany/Artie. Stephenie Meyer could write it for all I care.

I think you can work Brittana in there, at least semi believably. While Brittany is ridiculously stupid and pretty much a joke most of the time, Santana rarely treats her like one. There are no scenes where she gives Brittany magic combs or any of that shit.

Thank you so much for voicing my complete opinion about the Britanna-storyline. It’s exactly like you said.
On the other hand: applause for Kurt and Burt Hummell (as well as the respective actors).
As for Holly Holiday and shitty song choices and production: that’s the unfortunate proof that Glee lets commercialism and popularity win over quality. I don’t think the show’s bad at all, but sometimes it feels like a missed opportunity. In times like this I miss Joss Whedon.
PS: Thank you for being Rophy; your recaps succeed wonderfully in combining in-depth seriousness and the big LOL’s. Especially the Skins recaps: they’re really, really good. It makes me appreciate TV even more.

I mean, I don’t really watch Glee that much, but a few people told me that she was really good on it, so I made sure to watch it when she was on, and lord, I had to cover my eyes because it was so cringe worthy. Paltrow is an extremely average singer, well she’s better than me but thats about it, and she’s not ‘cool’, she never has been. When she said “lets go get some Tacos” I nearly choked at how bad it sounded. Why do other people like her in it??? Explain anyone???

Now I find ou she’s making more appearances…I used to love Ryan Murphy, what the hell is up.

While I don’t really like Holly. I can’t say no to the landslide scene.. The looks Santana and Brittany give are just to damn beautiful. So I actually don’t even see Holly anymore.

and the Santana love confession was obviously my favourite moment. Naya owned it. I am so excited to see more of her storyline. I can’t wait for some Santana development on her own. And I am actually having faith they are going to handle this right (even though it is glee, but Brad will do it right )

Also I can understand the point you make about Brittany. Like she seems just a bit to dumb sometimes.

Also Brittany is the only person Santana actually treats right. It does say a lot.

Also I do also really love the Kurt/Burt interactions and it is my favourite parent/Child relation on any show. But this was I think Naya’s , and I do really love thar girl she’s amazing.

There’s not enough Rachel, way too much Holly (WHY SHOULD SHE SING EVERYTHING? WHY????) and Santana made me cry (previously I was one of those people who kind of laughed at Brittana, Quinn is the gay cheerleader people! Now I kind of want some kind of Big-Love thing for Rachel, Quinn & Santana. Brittany is really manipulative, sorry but that story was basically her pushing Santana to tell her all her feelings and then rejecting her when she did. The stork thing wasn’t funny at all. Sounded like something Finn would say. I also didn’t buy Mercedes being a big idiot too. Holly and Will are gross. I actually kind of liked her in her first episode but she was just a total ann-hog in this one, AND we have to put up with her stupid ass in one of the next ones too. I do like that Coldplay said no having their music on the show but then Gywnie obvs wanted a part so Chris had to cave, I’m not sure why that’s funny but it is!

I suppose we can’t agree forever, I had noticed before that you guys seem not to be hardcore brittana shippers, that’s cool diff strokes I guess…

But I do think that the story has strong foundations and can relate to it, specially the “he’s just a boy” part :c it breaks my heart

Holly.. dear mother of God how much you suck, she ruined the Brittana song, she ruins everything and omfg the storyline with Will, both of them should get married and transfer to another school so we don’t ever have to see their annoying faces/hair ever again

“And it’s entirely Glee’s lack of ability to build and develop characters over the span of more than one episode that has ruined any chance of any relationship to be taken seriously.”

Nail on the head. Who takes any of these characters seriously? Even the ‘if you can’t talk about it, why don’t you sing about it? ‘ seemed so contrived to me, perhaps because they revisit that trope every second episode.
And Char’s point about Kurt being Ryan Murphy in high school makes Glee make so much more sense. This explains why his and Finn’s parents’ wedding was all about Kurt instead of all about the actual bride and groom. It also explains a bit about Glee’s failure on gender, race and disability issues. Murphy is only heavily invested in doing justice to Kurt’s story, never mind those fat jokes and Mercedes being reduced to a Kit Porter-ish sass dispenser.

Yes, Holly kind of fucked with Landslide. But c’mon, you can always see it like I did! I pretty much ignored Holly, stared at Brittana, and strained hard to only hear Naya’s pretty pretty voice the entire song. OMG NAYA ILY SO MUCH

On the other hand, about Brittana not having much development or substance behind it…

As a hard core Brittana shipper sine I saw the first background interaction between Naya and Heather, I have to say that I have seen plenty of substance to back it up…just not, y’know, visible unless you are really looking for it. Something you kind of only notice when you are staring hard at ONLY Brittana ALL the time?

Lol yes Brittana will always be based on Heya~ and I like it

This is me defending my OTP to the ends of the earth, until I die. Only reason I watch Glee now is them.

Holly/Gwyneth may be the worst guest star on Glee, ever. And I REALLY REALLY hated that bubblegum blonde drunk wanna-be starlet singer Will had a thing for. The one that everyone loves so much… can’t remember her name though.
But Holly beats her. She’s just so plain and dull and Gwyneth Paltrow. Even though I have to confess I sort of liked her during her “sexy sharing circle” even though she made me angry again when she asked a girl who just confessed to being attracted to both girls and boys “Are you maybe a lesbian?” Bisexuals aren’t unicorns, Glee!
And of course, she ruined “Landslide”. The song, not the scene. That scene was too beautiful to be ruined. And how it ended with next season’s OTP all cosy and snuggely was just too cute… I’m talking about Sam/Artie, of course.

However, I think they’ve been setting up Kurt and Blaine quite well, it’s the only relationship that’s really done it so far. Some people after Original Song were like “OMG IT WAS OUT OF THE BLUE!” Um, seriously? Have you actually been watching the show? Blaine has been falling in love(falling in love falling in love with Hermione Grangeeerrrrr!) with Kurt for weeks now. I mean..Baby It’s Cold Outside. As Chris Colfer said, that was probably the gayest thing that has ever been on TV. And it was awesome. And pretty much any other song they sing, Blaine constantly has hearts in his eyes. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself. He said he didn’t want to ruin their friendship, and I also think he didn’t want to take advantage–him being the older boy, maybe feeling like a bit of a mentor for Kurt. Anyway, I really hope they don’t fuck them up, knock on wood. I found the whole Karofsky storyline awful and heavy-handed, but it made Klanie happen. So I am happy about that.

Anyway, yay, I think Kurt and Blaine has been developed well. Every other relationship on the show…I just can’t give a shit about. As much as I love Santana and Brittany, it’s the actors(OMG NAYA) that make it awesome. It is hard to think of them as real 3D characters now, since , as you said, they’ve been punchlines for so long.

Woop finally got to this episode in the UK!
I never thought I’d ship a pairing like I do Naomily but this one suddenly appears to becoming very close behind it. I can see Brittana breaking my heart just like Naomily, I seem to be watching so many youtube videos on them today aha.
I really do like how the writers have spun Santana around these past couple of episodes and we have seen a completly different side to her. Last week in Blame It On The Alcohol we saw her drunk and become weepy and hysterical (We all know girls like it i’m sure, and yes i know it was a comedic purpose but still) and the this week we saw her venerable and wearing heart on her sleeve at the end (taking tips from a certain Fitch?). None it would have been possible without Naya’s amazing performance, it’s a shame we’ve had to wait this long to see her really come into her element.
I’m totally with you on why oh why they put Holly Holiday into what seems like every song. She sang most of Landslide, i was there like are Brittanna gonna sing more. Although watching them looking at each other I will admit i was tearing up (the whole breaking heart). But yeah on the whole hating her I have to admit she did come out with on piece of Gina like wisdom… ‘It’s not about who you attracted to ultimately, it’s about who you fall in love with’